RAGNAR, Baby!

Well, We DID IT! Holy cow, what a weekend! This last year was our Relay Race from Santa Barbara to Dana Point. Alot of it was all along the Pacific Coast Highway. It is so beautiful down there. We had a team of 12 girls in two vans. Each van had 6 girls in it. In our van was, myself, Penny, Amanda, Penny's sister Noel, my sister in law, Brooke, and Laurie. (I explain who Laurie is later for anyone thinking, Who is Laurie right now!) In the other van was my sister Michelle and then her sister in laws; Brooke, Amber and Becky and two of their cousins, Jinnai & Madison. So our van was Van 1. We each ran 1 leg. Then Van 2 all runs, then Van 1 runs 6 legs then Van 2 runs 6 legs then Van 1 runs 6 legs again and Van 2 runs 6 legs again. Getting us from Santa Barbara to Dana Point, 178 miles. Thats the idea at least. This was the first year they've done this race and there were some issues. Right before it started they told us they had cut out legs 13-18 (our vans whole second set of runs) So after much back and forth and not being sure what to do, we ended up splitting the second vans second set. So they took legs 19-21 and we did 22-24. Which was perfect because it was the middle of the night and through some creepy parts of LA. We ended up with alot more waiting around then what I think is typical of this type of race, and there was definately some frusteration but it all seemed to work itself out.
Here is our van at the start line, in Santa Barbara. We started at 10:00 am. It was kinda chilly out...



Decorating the van was a serious job! We had writing all over it. The Road Kill Ahead was a tally count. For each fellow racer we passed we put up a tally to keep track. People that weren't part of the race gave us funny looks as they read the window. Especially when there were a bunch of tally marks after it!

People got a kick out of the back window. Alot of people were surprised by the 6 of us having 18.5 kids. I guess we don't think much of it, but people were pretty impressed! Noel found out she was pregnant just a few days before the race. You would've never known though. She was so fast! (When one of her legs when she was done a guy came up to her and said, You are a great runner, I couldn't have kept that pace if I hadn't been trying to keep up with you.)
Noel started us out and then the first exchange was to Penny...

... and then from Penny to Laurie. So heres the deal with Laurie. We had someone not able to do the run, and then we had a fill in, and then she couldn't do it, so we were down a runner until right up to the end. Michelle got online and found a lady who wanted to do the race. She contacted her and it turns out she lives in Kaysville which is pretty much next door to Michelle, her husband works for the airlines so she was able to give Michelle a buddy pass (there had been a problem with Shells ticket and she was going to have to get another one at the last minute), she was LDS and SUPER FUN! We were kinda worried having someone we didn't know at all. We'd be together nonstop for 3 days, staying with us, in the van, at Noel's house... anyway, you just never know. But it couldn't have been better. She was so helpful, super easy going, she's done many relays so kinda knew what to expect. (she brought her GPS which was a LIFESAVOR!) She just fit right in, there was not even a moment of akwardness. We REALLY lucked out! Can't wait to run with her again.


Here is me getting ready to run!

While we were waiting to join Amanda for the last mile, it was all along the coast and beautiful so 3 of us got out and ran with her, we took a picture here along the PCH.

I would've ran after Amanda but my first leg got cut, and then the whole second section of 6 legs also got taken out. I guess the city of Malibu wouldn't let us run through. I only had 1 real leg in the whole run. So I ran the last mile with Amanda and then the first part of Brooke's leg just so I could get some miles in. I ended up with 13 miles total instead of the 15 I was planning on. Which was fine.

I ran with Michelle for 6 miles along the coast at midnight. It was pretty cool. I was not feeling good, which was a BUMMER! I started my period the morning of the race. Need I say more? And traveling, always does funny things to my stomach anyway. I had to stop at a bathroom while Shell and I were running, which didn't help. I felt like the whole inside of my gut was on fire! UGH! So we took it pretty slow, thanks Shell. But it was super fun to run together.
Here is Brooke coming in to the exchange. This was our last leg of the first set and then the other van started from this point.

Here is our whole team, minus Brooke, who was still finishing her leg. We weren't all together for a picture until the finish line, and I don't have a picture of that yet.

After finishing our first set of legs, we had 10 hours of downtime. With no where to go and nothing to do. We went to the beach but it was cold. We headed down to Santa Monica which is where we were going to start running again. We didn't know how much time we'd have so we weren't really sure what to do. While we were at the pier we saw a trapeeze place where you could take a class. The class had already started and there was only an hour before they closed but Amanda really wanted to do it. So she did. She totally learned how to trapeeze... it was so fun. She was so excited. Pictures to follow. They are all on her phone.
Me and Michelle.


Noel, Brooke, Penny & Amanda...
Or van finished at 9:15 on Saturday morning. We didn't really have anywhere to go and were so tired that we just went to the finish line, which was in Dana Point and laid out on the grass waiting for the other van to finish. They got there around 4 so we had some good hours in the sun. Which was perfect for me. Thats exactly what I wanted to do was relax in the sunshine! It was fun to watch all of the other teams come across the finish line. Many of them you can tell have done this before and they have costumes and funny names and are pretty entertaining to watch. This is all of our van... Michelle, who wasn't in her pink tank because she had a little "nursing" mishap from not getting the breast pump soon enough, so her shirt was drying out, Me, Brooke, Amanda, Penny & Noel...

This is us on Sunday morning with our van... If you can't read the definition its this; Ragnolian: (n.) A woman possessed with the wisdom of Athena (without the Heft), the beauty of Aphrodite (without the negative side effects), the hunting instincts of Artemis (road kill ahead), the speed of Nike (the goddess not the shoe) and the kick butt mentality of Medusa (but with better hair!)!!!
That was our team name! Thanks, Jed for the kick butt definition! People stared at our windows all day, one girl even came up and took a picture with it. Then she went back to her van and said, "they really are hot!" (because the back window said, 6 Hot moms w/ 18 1/2 kids, going all the way! Quite the compliment as it was about midnight and we were all pretty ragged looking we thought.
So this is Noel, Brooke, Penny, Laurie & Me... at Noel's house...

I figured out that in 42 hours I had a 15 minute nap, around 4 in the morning, which I don't know if I actually fell asleep for, because I remember still hearing the cheering for the teams as the runners came in for the exchange. Poor Noel was getting ready to go run her last leg. Its 4am, still dark out and she's about to go through the Port of LA area, not the safest place, she needed the head lamp and I had been the last one to have it. She's like, "Annette, where's the headlamp?" I absolutley could not tell her. I was sooo out of it! It was the wierdest feeling. I knew that I'd had it but I could not get my brain to focus on what I had done with it. I kept trying to remember and it was like my brain had a total blank. It was crazy! I don't know if I've ever had such little sleep. I'm definatley not as young as I once was. In the wee hours of the morning I remember thinking I don't think I'd ever do this again. But after a good nights sleep and rest I think I'm ready for next year! It was so much fun. We stayed with Noel at her house, which was so nice to not be in a hotel. Thanks Noel for putting us all up.

Oh yea! We went to Breakfast Sunday morning in a city called Calabassas, right by Noel's house, and we were standing in the entry waiting for a table and Penny grabs Noel's arm and whispers, that looks like someone famous! Who is that? We all turn and look and there is Tommy Lee! He says, "How long for a table?" to the host and I'm thinking, he's gonna just say, right this way, Mr. Lee. But he's like 10 minutes. Tommy Lee's like, Alright" and heads out. We are all like Holy Cow that was Tommy Lee! After he walked out, Laurie turns to me and says that was the most disgusting person I've ever seen! I'm like "that was Tommy Lee!" She's like, "WHO?" It was prety funny! He ended up just sitting a couple of tables away from us. I was trying to figure out how to discreetly get a picture of him without being TOTALLY obvious, so as he was leaving I got one with my phone, which I think I must not have saved cuz I can't find it right now to upload. That was our celebrity sighting for the weekend. Although there was a team of guys we were talking to at the finish line and they said as they ran through, the team right after them had Tiffany Amber-Theissan (Saved by the bell) on it. I missed seeing her though. Gotta love LA...
I also got passed by a Ferrarri in my mini van! All in all a SUPER FUN EXHAUSTING AND EXCITING WEEKEND! Can't wait until next year!